Division of Water
Kentucky Receives $3.5 Million Federal Grant for Water Pollution Control Projects

FRANKFORT, Ky.  (Jan. 6, 2006) – A Clean Water Act grant of $3.5 million to the state of Kentucky will support the Commonwealth’s efforts to keep Kentucky’s waterways safe for drinking, wildlife support and recreation.  The funds also will be used to help correct existing water quality problems.

The federal funds, received through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, are for continued implementation of the Kentucky Nonpoint Source Pollution Control Program.  Project partners will contribute to the grant with matching funds of $2.3 million, bringing the total value of the program’s support for this year to $5.8 million.

Nonpoint source pollution, unlike pollution from industrial and sewage treatment plants, refers to pollutants borne by runoff from rain, melting snow, lawn watering and similarly diffuse sources into streams and aquifers.

The following projects will be funded in Kentucky:

• Laurel County – Cromer Ridge Watershed Restoration, a project to reduce sediment in the Rockcastle River and Woods Creek reservoir. Project director: Jon Walker, Daniel Boone National Forest.
• Scott County – North Elkhorn Urban Water Quality Best Management Practice Education and Demonstration Project, a project to educate people on ways to reduce or prevent nonpoint source pollution impacts from urbanization. Project director: Brad Frazier, city of Georgetown.
• Pulaski County – Buck Creek Watershed Riparian Restoration, a project to protect Buck Creek from non-point source pollution from agricultural practices. Project director: Joe Crawford, Pulaski County Conservation District.
• Regional – Geomorphic Assessment and Watershed Implementation Plan for a Sediment-Impaired Watershed, a project that uses geomorphic assessment for streams listed for sediment impairment or for which a sediment TMDL (Total Maximum Daily Load) is under development at the watershed level. Project director: Dr. Art Parola, University of Louisville.
• Hart County – Watershed-Based Plan Development and Initial Implementation for Bacon Creek, a project to develop and implement a watershed-based plan to restore healthy recreational uses to the stream. Project director: Judith Petersen, Kentucky Waterways Alliance.
• Logan County – Sinkhole Education and Restoration for the Reduction of Nonpoint Source Pollution in the Pleasant Grove Creek Subwatershed, a project to reduce nutrients and pathogens on select farmsteads near Pleasant Grove Creek. Project director: Lindsay Gardner Bland, Red River Watershed Association.
• Grant and Kenton counties – Eagle Creek Straight Pipe Abatement and Education Project, a project to develop a watershed-based plan to address all known pollutants in the Eagle Creek Watershed. Project director: Laura Strevels, Northern Kentucky Independent District Health Department.
• Hopkins County – Pleasant Run Acid Mine Drainage Abatement Project, a project to reclaim and revegetate areas with inadequate vegetative cover and passively treat acid mine drainage. Project director: Steve Hohmann, Kentucky Division of Abandoned Mine Lands.

For information about the Nonpoint Source Program, go to: http://www.water.ky.gov/sw/nps or contact John Eisiminger at (502) 564-3410, ext. 696.  Information on applying for a Section 319(h) grant, which funds these projects, may be found at the same Web address.

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